Chapter 176: Chapter 175: Summoning the Red Phantom
"Justice?"
Jing Zhengtang was taken aback.
Can’t blame him, after all, anyone would have this reaction hearing the word ’justice’ from their own elder brother—it’s akin to a tobacco factory putting firecrackers in cigarettes for physical quitting, greedy merchants dissipating their wealth for disaster relief, or traffickers establishing a lost children fund, all things that leave you baffled.
The terms Jing Zhengwei and justice aren’t entirely unrelated, but it would likely be in a context like ’For justice, Jing Zhengwei, you must die.’
Yet soon enough Jing Zhengtang understood: "Is the justice big brother speaks of the justice of the Jing Family?"
Le Yu thought he might have casually fooled his third brother, but after thinking carefully, he felt a bit flustered.
What is the Jing Family? A den of villains.
So the justice of the Jing Family, naturally, is the justice of villains.
However, Le Yu didn’t bother with these trivial details and countered, "Then how do you see it, third brother? What I say might not be true, but what I do is indeed real, regardless of my motivation. You’ve already decided that the Jing Family will be the ’sacrifice’ I’ll make."
"Your wife is right; you should pretend to be unaware and leave. Whether to unite others against me or to consider your own escape, both are fine. Since you’ve privately laid your cards on the table with me, I need you to state your stance."
"Stand by? Self-preservation? Or... support?"
Jing Zhengtang was silent for a moment, suddenly speaking, "I kind of need to pee..."
Le Yu knew what he intended to do as soon as he saw him start to move, irritably saying, "Stay seated, I’ll have someone call Feiwei over. Isn’t this supposed to concern your bottom line? You need to ask her?"
Jing Zhengtang replied, "She is my bottom line."
Suddenly, Le Yu understood Jing Qingfu’s thinking—if he truly wanted to choose Jing Zhengtang as the patriarch, the first person to kill wouldn’t be the other brothers, but Feiwei.
In Jing Qingfu’s view, the patriarch of the Jing Family should only be concerned with wealth and power. He didn’t worry about Jing Zhengwei, Jing Zhengwu, or Jing Zhengfeng, because they didn’t have an absolute ’bottom line,’ so their bottom line is the Jing Family’s assets that enable them to enjoy life endlessly.
However, Le Yu also recalled the subtle hint Jing Qingfu gave, saying that the reason Jing Zhengtang nearly became a laughingstock for the family over a maid back then was actually a method of self-disparagement to make his second brother Jing Zhengwu look down on him.
Although this puts Jing Zhengtang in a dark light and denies the possibility of true love, such thinking actually aligns with the Jing Family’s traditions—you cultivate naïve young masters in a family like the Jing Family as likely as enjoying a supreme experience in Pig Factory and Goose Factory games without spending a dime.
But no matter what, Jing Zhengtang has eventually become a ’man with a bottom line,’ which is why Le Yu was willing to be somewhat honest with him.
Le Yu is currently short-handed, and counting them up, there are only Qing Lan and Yin Minghong available, he almost considered holding a recruitment drive in White Night.
The Jing Zhengtang couple could be considered SSR-level talents within the Jing Family—their pure personal abilities rivaled Jing Zhengwu despite his initial advantages and support from the maternal clan.
If they were willing to abandon darkness for light, Le Yu’s ’Jing Family Completion Plan’ might almost be realizable.
Yes, Le Yu actually feels that even if his plan succeeds, he won’t fully take over the Jing Family, at best controlling about half, and White Night might get a slice too.
His best strategy is to follow Jing Zhengtang’s advice and spend two to three years gradually replacing the old family members with newcomers loyal to him, naturally claiming the Jing Family as his own.
But Le Yu thinks the Silver Blood Association won’t even last two or three years.
More importantly, he hadn’t intended to stay in Xuanzhu County for long.
The ’Youth Daily’ has already published eight issues, and the books Le Yu wants to copy are almost done, such as excerpts from ’The Family of Ti-shu Chen,’ ’A Madman’s Diary,’ ’The Saga of Xiang Lin,’ ’Camel Xiangzi,’ and even parts of ’Water Margin’ like ’Snowfall on Liangshan’ and ’Yang Zhi Selling Swords,’ all feeding readers a bitter and oppressive narrative.
His novel ’Future Echoes’ is almost finished too, basically portraying the future society’s form.
Excluding ’fantasy’ elements like the internet, mobile phones, and computers, Le Yu also unfolded the plots of the three protagonists.
’We martial artists, what fear have we of the college entrance exam battle,’ for student Liu Yu;
’I used to be the best assassin, now I’m the best manager at McDonald’s,’ for worker Yin Yin;
And ’Impossible to work, how could I ever work,’ for criminal Wei Zheng;
Through these three narrative paths, Le Yu intentionally or inadvertently spent much effort on describing the structure of the lower society and political systems, including a bit of ’Dragon Slaying Skill’ from political textbooks.
Yet even so, it almost ended in failure, the government sent people to the newspaper a few days ago, requesting the Jing Family to warn the author of ’Future Echoes,’ Tree-man—any author of a mere novel daring to discuss state systems?
Even if Le Yu continues the serialization, this novel is likely to be forcibly discontinued.
Nothing good left to copy, writing likely leads to suppression, so Le Yu is already contemplating escape.
Of course, Le Yuxin hasn’t forgotten his original intention.
He wants to change this place, so he has to start by transforming the Jing Family’s industry.
Don’t be mistaken, Le Yuxin isn’t planning to treat workers well, turning the Jing Family into a conscientious enterprise, setting an example, fostering new traditions, upholding righteousness, and changing the Silver Blood Association from top to bottom—such actions would only lead to the silent demise of the Jing Family.
The world has never seen a conscientious enterprise defeat an unscrupulous one, just as a non-spending player can’t beat a cheating player, unless the cost of violating morals outweighs the benefits.
But who in the entire Dongyang District will make them bear the cost?
Therefore, Le Yuxin not only does not want to treat workers well, he even plans to intensify exploitation after taking full control of the Jing Family, create discriminatory rhetoric, and make the lives of the bottom-tier workers and servants extremely miserable!
Then, under the identity of ’Yin Sound Hidden’, he suggests to the White Night Organization the formation of a worker association for bottom-tier workers to unite and resist the Jing Family.
At that time, the Jing Family’s industrial managers were all promoted by Yin Minghong, and Le Yuxin believes he will certainly ’not hear’ any news about the worker association, and with the help of the managers, the establishment of the worker association would surely be smooth.
As for whether White Night can expand this union membership to all county workers, and even develop into the ’Dongyang Workers Association’, that is beyond Le Yuxin’s influence. What he can do is provide information for the union and, at the right moment, become the first capitalist to defect to the union.
Le Yuxin pondered carefully, even if he could destroy Silver Blood and topple the Governor, in the end, someone would have to rule this land. How could he ensure the next ruler would treat the people kindly?
The first path is to become the ruler himself, which is the path arranged for him by Jing Qingfu: destabilizing Xuanzhu, plotting against Dongyang, and unifying Silver Blood.
But this path is a venomous and destructive one, because according to this strategy, Le Yuxin’s basic constituency would be the various guilds and the aristocrats, and he would merely become a spokesperson for the Silver Blood Association. Even if he wants to implement benevolent policies, his orders will only be twisted by subordinates, and his goodwill will turn into malice.
If the foundation is corrupt, no matter how benevolent or kind-hearted the ruler is, it is of no use.
Moreover, don’t be misled by how easily Jing Qingfu speaks; Le Yuxin admits he lacks such ability and ambition.
And the second path is the one Le Yuxin is taking now.
He sacrifices a Jing Family and the entire Silver Blood Association, to see if he can summon an everlasting red specter.
He gives the union a victory, to see if he can elevate them to the historical stage.
As for what comes after, that’s already the story of White Night, and by then the Jing Family might be defeated as well, and Le Yuxin will surely seize the opportunity to liquidate assets, change his identity, and embark on the journey to seek the Divine Demon Well.
While Le Yuxin was lost in thought, Feiwei came to the study, sat beside Jing Zhengwei, and the two whispered sweet nothings to each other as if no one was around, leaving Le Yuxin feeling utterly satiated—when dogs die from stuffing dog food, not a single couple is innocent.
I should get Qing Lan here to confront them in the middle lane... a strange idea suddenly popped into Le Yuxin’s mind.
"Big brother," Jing Zhengwei said: "I need to get an answer first."
"Will you also get rid of us? I’m not just talking about death—we don’t have deep-seated hatred between us, and you may not want to completely make us disappear. But in the future, will you expel us from the Jing Family, preventing us from participating in its management?"
Le Yuxin thought for a moment: "I don’t really want to."
It’s not that he won’t, nor that he doesn’t want to.
He doesn’t want to, but if necessary, he will.
Jing Zhengwei nodded: "Then if we’re willing to accept your supervision, wholeheartedly work for you, can you let us use the Jing Family’s resources to plan a secret route to leave Dongyang?"
Le Yuxin was taken aback and couldn’t help but look at Feiwei; Jing Zhengwei immediately puffed up his chest to block Feiwei’s front, signaling his brother to look at his own chest muscles.
Le Yuxin asked: "What did you guess?"
"Xuanzhu cannot be stayed for long." Jing Zhengwei said, "We actually don’t have much affection for the other members of the Jing Family, and they’ve even bullied me before. The only ones we have feelings for are Father and Second Brother."
"We haven’t guessed what Big Brother wants to do, but we know he’s certainly going to do something very dangerous. Anyway, Xuanzhu County is not a place to stay; we’re planning to go somewhere else, start a new life."
Hey, Qing Lan, come over and take a look, now this is what smart people are like... Le Yuxin blinked: "Where are you planning to go?"
Jing Zhengwei hesitated for a moment and then honestly said: "Yanjing seems stable on the surface but actually has turbulent undercurrents, Skyrim is still in a state of internal warlords’ conflict, other places are too far away... we’re planning to go to Chenfeng Star Engraving County."
Le Yuxin was slightly taken aback, then quickly smiled: "That’s a good place."
"Have you been there, big brother?"
"I know two friends from there."